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freshy, fresh juice in cucumber cups

What fun I had the other day doing a juicing workshop at a daycare. The kids, aged 15-months to four and a half, were super excited to work with the big machine that was going to make juice for them.
They just loved loading in all the fruits and vegetables and watching the juice come out through the spout.
We juiced carrots, green apples, red pears, cucumber, mango, parsley and kale.
I was going to leave out the kale, but the kids insisted that we add it.
Then we hollowed out big pieces of cucumber to use as cups. This is really easy to do. Just use a melon baller (or if you’re like me and and can’t find yours because it’s hidden deep in the utensil drawer, just use a measuring spoon – a teaspoon measure works really well) to make a big well in the thick cucumber slices. Don’t forget to add the cucumber that you take out to make the well, to your juicer!

I explained to the kids that, if we made the cups out of something we could eat, we wouldn’t have to throw out or wash the cup and we would save energy and keep the cup out of the garbage. They were all excited about easing the burden on their planet.

And, what fun to drink juice from a cucumber cup!
Our little fifteen-month old participant had about six cucumber cups of juice. He would finish one cup and hold out his little hand, holding the cup and exclaim, ‘more’, slurp up the juice and say it again!
‘More’, ‘more’, ‘more’, slurp, slurp, slurp!

Who says kids don’t love fruit and veggies!
In my experience, when kids are part of the process of choosing and preparing the foods that they eat, they are all over the healthy choices.

Hi Jennifer, if I hadn’t worked with kids for the past 2 years, I might have a hard time believing that they do indeed love their veggies. What seems to really encourage them is letting them be part of the process. Then there’s no stopping them!